Maine Corporation Fined $10,000 for Counterfeit Goods Trafficking

Contact: Joel B. Casey
                F. Todd Lowell
Assistant United States Attorney
Tel: (207) 945-0373

Bangor, Maine:  United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced that Robert Berg Enterprises, Inc., d/b/a “Berg Sportswear” of Corinna, Maine was fined $10,000 today in U.S. District Court by Judge John A. Woodcock, Jr. for trafficking in counterfeit goods.  The defendant was also placed on probation for one year and ordered to pay $11,855.67 in restitution.  The defendant pleaded guilty to the charge on June 23, 2014.

The defendant operates a screen printing business that prints, markets and sells apparel items bearing trademarks and other logos and images. A trademark is a symbol, word, or words legally registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office or established by use as representing a company or product.  According to court records, between January 2006 and January 2011, the defendant counterfeited apparel bearing the trademarks of the Boston Red Sox, Boston Celtics, New England Patriots, New York Yankees, Harley Davidson, John Deere, Jack Daniels, Orange County Choppers and Playboy.  Employees designed counterfeit trademarks, created screens from which the trademarks could be printed on apparel items and printed the counterfeit trademarks on those items.

"Counterfeiting is not a victimless crime. It dupes the consumer, forces local stores out of business, and results in lost revenue for the trademark holders,” said special agent in charge Matthew Etre of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Boston. “Intellectual property theft is a very real crime with very real victims.”

The case was investigated by HSI, with the assistance of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation.